dino88

Tara's a nosy bitch.

northmoor

Was good to finally see Stahl get her brains blown out, but it was about 10 episodes too late in happening.

I really liked the first two seasons. This season was a huge disappointment, as expectations were much higher. Someone mentioned that Sutter "saved" everything with this episode. I disagree. It was beyond saving. It wouldn't bother me in the least if SOA was canceled or not renewed. The best days of this show are in the past.

The best thing about this episode ... is that it was the last one. I'm glad it's over.

Sorry for the downer post.

gmanca

If you think about it, the finale did just that; it was a complete reset on this season and the past IMO.

A damn good finale; if the season was fleshed out a bit more, it wouldn't have been so bad, but the finale redeems Sutter's vision/arcs. Now the questions are whether the Hale recording comes to light after Charming PD takes inventory and how the Russians payback the club.

kstublen

As much as I hated this season, I'll admit that the first episode and the last episode were the strongest. Like the rest of you, I'll just pretend that everything that happened in the middle didn't really happen, except for Jax getting Abel back and Gemma holding that baby at gunpoint, because that was hilarious.

Really a great episode though and definitely hits the reset button on a lot of what has happened. Abel's back, the club is united, people have gotten revenge, and we have a new antagonist moving forward. The only thing really left unresolved at this point is whether Chibs, Lem, Opie, and Piney are going to also be arrested and thrown in jail with the rest of the club. Lem probably won't since he wasn't there whenever they caught the gun charges, but I'm pretty sure the rest of them were involved and will have to face the consequences.

The plan was great and it was nice to see Jax really thinking strategically; he was playing the offense and the defense perfectly. I think in the back of my mind I kind of saw the double-cross coming, but it still played out wonderfully. I loved that Chibs got his revenge on Jimmy with the Glasgow smile before killing him. Opie making Stahl die just like Donna was great and I'm glad the writers made her pay for everything she's done. I just loved how she thought she got the upper-hand on Jax and it turns out she did exactly what he wanted her to.

Still, as great as this episode was it wasn't enough to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth from the rest of the season. Sutter & Co. have really ruined any goodwill they may have had and have an uphill battle to re-establish themselves in Season 4.

uteotw

Brilliant. Loved to see Stahl get hers, and Jimmy took it like a real man.

Unser though, he's helped out and turned lots of blind eyes in the past, but playing a key role in the murder of a fed--way out there miles across the line.

Those guys sure put on a convincing act when Stahl "revealed" Jax.

Hoping Lem sticks around too--he's a great addition.

superfro

Totally. And all the right people got revenge. It was brilliantly played out.

I was a complete mess trying to watch the episode though. I swear I paused the show like 3 or 4 times to discuss with my wife what was going on because I couldn't for the life of me figure out the motivation and the reasoning they were using to do the stuff they were doing. Ultimately I was looking at things that didn't make sense and just chalking it up to the weakness of the entire season so they totally suckered me with the swerve. I was super annoyed at how everyone turned on Jax for being a rat instantly. After everything they just went through and him handing over Jimmy to cut their sentences by like 95% it didn't make any sense at all. (Course Jax doing everything in the world to get his son back only to take a few days off for bare knuckle boxing and sister banging didn't either. ) The end coming to light was a very satisfying feeling in those regards.

I don't see Unser taking too much shit. Looks like he was on his way out anyway, so won't they just add that to the list of why he's incompetent?

I hope we don't get a season of SoA in prison. IMO that would be kin to the stretching exercise that was the Ireland/Abel bullshit. Jumping to their release from prison would work on a lot of fronts. It will provide enough time to pass for the Hale mayoral stuff to happen and be established, we won't have to deal with Tara's pregnancy, Gemma won't be on house arrest, etc. They have laid the building blocks of putting the show back on track with Tara getting the letters and it opening up the Gemma/Clay/John story with Jax, but I'm concerned we're still gonna get 6 or 7 episodes (at least) of Tara finding the right time to tell Jax and struggling with knowing the information.

MrX

Great Sutter interview

Sutter talks about this season and some ideas he has for next season.

superfro

Glad to read that he understands where people were coming from with the Ireland stuff.

macnorton

Yes, but he is sticking to his guns. And I like that.

Granted it did drag the show down a smidge, but not enough for me to stop watching. It seems like he does have a legit plan on where the series is going to go, so I have 100% faith in him.

I also loved the ending narration. I mentioned in another thread that what had been hinted at will be revealed. And boy was it ever. I really hope they explore that more. Jax's relationship with his dead father is one of my favorite parts of the show*.

*The season at the end of season one specifically, when Jax is standing at his father's grave...gave me the chills.

superfro

Agreed. I have no problem with him acknowledging it did things differently and that he can see where people would have an issue going along with it, but that it was his intent and needed to happen for his specific reasons. I was worried his reaction would be more of a "Fuck you! I can do what I want!" sort of tone. Glad to see that's not the case.

But seriously...most of the season was total ass.

mugwump

That whole shot was pure gold. From the bus to the "juice" box to the looks on their faces they seemed like some eager kids going on a field trip. Which, in a way, I guess they were.

Dave99

Big step up from the rest of the season, but I'm not sure I like the convenience of the "oh look, Jax had secretly told the club about being a rat after all, so everything is ok". That smacks of an almost Heroes-like reboot.

dino88

Why did Unser leave his badge and gun at the station if he didn't want it to look like he was involved?

Gunde

So Unser spends most of the season conflicted about his 'job' for the Sons. Even saying
'I can't do this', 'Can't help you anymore' etc. But suddenly he's OK with participating in 2 murders!?

Other than that, best episode of the season. Unfortunately it was too little too late. I don't think I'll be back next year.

superfro

To be fair to Unser, he really is the only guy conflicted about doing good. He tried to make a stand and work on the right side of the law, but look at the stuff he had to witness with Stahl and more importantly Hale. I think Hale being dirty and ultimately taking Unser's job on top of it was probably the catalyst for him to essentially say "fuck it".

Fandango

Fist of Doom

The murders of 2 cold-blooded killers. I think Unser - facing his mortality - finally chose a side. He saw how corrupt the "law" side of the equation is and decided to go outside of it.


EDIT: And I want a Jameson juice box!

SexualPudding

Yeah, I thought about that too. As I watched it all unfold, I also thought for a minute that when Unser was flagging down Stahl's car that he was going to pop both her and Jimmy and then off himself.

superfro

Opie, Chibs, Kozik, and Piney.....that bus was stacked with awesome.

macnorton

While I did find some of this season to be ass (your words), I did really enjoy where the show went. And with most of this season's plot closed (a few things are going to linger), the show has no where to go but up in my opinion.

This does remind me of The Sopranos season four...which most people hated, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a very solid season. i see that being the case here. It may not play well now, but revisiting it later may yield a different result.

Fist of Doom

Thanks for the link. This part should calm some people's fears about Season 4:


I'm betting everyone who says they won't be back for Season 4 will come back.

Deftones

Wow. I'd say this show moderately redeemed itself with this finale. I was giving up hope, but they tied up most of the stuff in an interesting way. Most of the stuff between sucked.So happy that Stahl got her fate. Hated her, but she provided a good adversary. Loved the bus scene, too. So do we get Chibs/Tig/Piney and Lem running the show for a while next year?

kstublen

Same here. I thought he had just had enough and was going to shoot Stahl, kill Jimmy, then kill himself. I liked what they ended up doing better because Unser is a great character, but I could've seen them going the other way with it too.

And I don't think Unser ever completely abandoned the Sons, I just think that when Hale died he realized that the Sons weren't protecting Charming and he had to remove himself from their business and try and stabilize things on his own.

superfro

Agreed. And then the new Hale shit all over everything he tried to do so he was all "I don't need this shit! I've got cancer!" and just did whatever the hell he wanted.

wmansir

I'm one of those who said I won't be back next season...and I probably still won't. Maybe if I'm desperate for something to bitch about.

The finale was better than the rest of the season, but it still had enough plot holes to drive that school bus through. I didn't buy the revelation of Jax as a rat for one minute. The highlight of the ep has to be Opie killing Stahl, that was a well played scene.

Regarding the interview posted, I was actually more interested in the non-spoiler stuff.

No wonder I hated the Irish story so much, apparently I completely missed the entire point. For instance, did I miss something that indicated John was going to leave Gemma?

I don't think Sutter did a good job conveying these points. My opinion of John didn't change much at all this season. I mean, OMG, he was cheating on Gemma! And I mean seriously cheating, not just fucking other women like Clay routinely does. And on poor Gemma too, the women who all indications point to being involved in his murder.